Is it enough to tell a few business owners but not the public about proposed public parking changes? Former Ottawa mayor Bob Eschbach thinks not. At last night’s City Council meeting, he criticized a plan to eliminate parking on the east side of Court St. The plan wasn’t previously publicized. Eschbach found out when an area business owner shared a letter that alluded to construction starting this month.
Current Mayor Dan Aussem says it won’t get started this month, the number of lost parking spaces won’t be quite so many, and he thinks he notified everyone who needs to know.
Business parking would be on the west side of Court street (on the courthouse side). For courthouse business, parking would be on LaSalle. Most courthouse employees and people who work at other places in the area would be required to park in parking lots. Angled parking would be made for judges on Madison St. in front of the courthouse. There’s already angled parking on that side of Madison farther east in the block.
A proposed parking change would have all business parking on the courthouse side of Court St., no parking on the business side, and most parking for the courthouse on LaSalle St.